I have been contracted by a facility to provide their food service. This will be associated with a craft brewery, a subsidiary of an established winery. The winery currently is open May to October, and has an annual traffic of 30,000. They currently serve wood fired oven pizza, cheese trays, and a VERY limited sandwich menu. (I mention this because I anticipate a spill over effect...) The brewery will have an inside seating capacity of 99, and they anticipate the initial traffic at about 20,000 annually. The owners are also considering a year round operation, and a five day a week opening.
We have agreed upon a menu to include all the usual smoked, barbecued options: brisket, BB ribs, pulled pork, chicken, some derivatives of the above, typical sides, and occasional specials such as ABT's, bacon wrapped shrimp, etc. I think they would like to keep the food limited, but I can see the potential that the food earnings may equal if not exceed the beer sales.
My cooking area will be an outdoor (brrrr in the winter!) enclosed pavilion type structure. My thoughts are to purchase a 240/260, depending on some input here. I currently personally own an FEC120, and 2 FEC100's, so I am used to the pellet cooking. I am also going to utilize my 120 for the ribs and chicken, and maybe 1 of the 100's as a back up.
I plan to smoke the brisket and pork for 2-3 hours, then transfer to a cook & hold for finishing. In my mind, that frees up my main cooker for other offerings, and also helps maintain a consistency of product after introduction of the smoke.
As far as commercial operations, would you suggest an electric or pellet cooker? Given the seating and potential traffic , do you believe the cookers I propose will meet potential demand? (I know that Q is rather subjective, but what I want to avoid is overbuying equipment, as I sometimes swing for the fence but end up with a single...LOL.)
Also, is a cook/heat/hold a good option for re thermalizing? I understand the CVAP's are the industry standard for holding, but what about re thermalizing? For that component, I am considering an Alto Shaam/FWE/Cres Cor full sized cabinet with a water pan. I think that sous vide would be a bit cumbersome, and possibly waste resources, but I'll wait for your thoughts on the matter! Thanks guys and gals.
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